Editor’s Note: What is a community without creativity? The arts are thriving in Charleston, but it would be folly to assume that they will continue to flourish in these uncertain political times. Too often, whether in word or deed, the arts are relegated to the fringe of what is considered essential to healthy human communities. Many of us feel in some visceral way that this is backwards, but how many of us can articulate exactly how, or why?

In Season XII of Wide Angle Lunches, you will hear from five speakers, each a champion of creativity and community, whose lives and work are distinctly dedicated to the making of community through creativity. Whether through music or architecture, poetry or “artivism”, they are tackling society’s ills in profoundly inspirational ways. We invite you to join us for one or all lunches, and promise that you will leave both sated and hungry: armed with examples and a deepened understanding of how the arts are integral to the health and sustainability of peaceful and prosperous communities, and eager to go out into your community and make it stronger through your own creativity. -Ceara Donnelley

For many Charlestonians, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about community and creativity is Enough Pie, the organization dedicated to using creativity to connect and empower the community of Charleston’s Upper Peninsula - or its visionary founder, Kate Nevin. In this Wide Angle first, Nevin will moderate a conversation with two people whose ideas about creativity and community promise to spark a lively exploration about how art intersects with urban planning, politics and social justice, or, in Nevin’s own words, “artivism.”

Ruby Lerner and KJ Kearney are both visionaries and practitioners in the art of creative community-making. Lerner is the founding Executive Director of Creative Capital, an innovative arts foundation that adapts venture capital concepts to support individual artists. Under her leadership, Creative Capital committed $40 million in financial and advisory support to 511 projects representing 642 artists. She stepped down from the organization in June 2016 to pursue consulting work and independent research, and beginning in January 2017 she will be the inaugural Herberger Institute Policy Fellow at Arizona State University and Senior Advisor to the Patty Disney Center for Life and Work at CalArts.

You may have read KJ Kearney’s name in the byline of his former column for Charleston City Paper, or in the news when he ran for South Carolina House District 15. A native of North Charleston, Kearney is committed to keeping Charleston conscious of its complicated cultural heritage and often-precarious present. He recently launched Charleston Sticks Together, in the words of the City Paper a “platform for reminding the city of its imperfections” - it sells pins that remind us all of the ugliness that lurks beneath and within the beauty of Charleston, urging us to take off our “Rainbow Row-colored glasses” and confront the challenges that bedevil true unity in this community.